Among those invited to testify on the matter Monday is David Wildstein, the authority’s director of interstate capital projects. The Wall Street Journal reported this month that Mr. Wildstein made the call to close the toll lanes, triggering the traffic jams.

Also called to testify were Patrick Foye and Bill Baroni, the executive and deputy executive director of the authority, respectively; Michael Fedorko, the authority’s superintendent of police; Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich; and Fort Lee Police Chief Keith Bendul.

The invitations ask the attendees to appear voluntarily. But their failure to attend the hearing Monday morning in Trenton “will result” in subpoenas compelling their testimony, letters to the invitees say.

None of the people called to testify could immediately be reached to comment.

Mr. Baroni is a top appointee of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, whose allies have been at the center of the inquiry over what happened — and why — at the bridge this fall.

The authority’s initial explanation was that the shutdown was the result of a study of traffic patterns — but internal communications cast doubt on that explanation, and Mr. Baroni declined to repeat that initial statement at a press conference last week, instead citing an ongoing investigation and declining to comment.

Meanwhile, the pair of powerful governors who share control of the Port Authority through their respective appointees have remained mum. The official spokesman for Mr. Christie has referred questions to the authority press office and said the governor would not get involved in traffic studies. Mr. Christie’s campaign spokesman called “crazy” the notion that the closures were intended as political retribution against a Democratic mayor.

Representatives for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo have repeatedly declined to return messages seeking comment about the matter.

The officials were invited to appear before the Assembly Transportation, Public Works, and Independent Authorities committee, which is chaired by Assemblyman John Wisniewski, a former Democratic party chairman and occasional combatant of Mr. Baroni’s political patron, Mr. Christie.

The committee will investigate how the closures came about, an agenda for the hearing states, along with “the safety hazards and economic losses resulting from that closure.”

The lane closure incident is rife with political subplots. Prominent Democrats assailed the Port Authority leadership with demands that they explain why the lanes were closed, submerging the borough of Fort Lee, N.J., in dense traffic jams for an entire work-week, until the closures were discovered by Mr. Foye. He angrily ordered the closures reversed in an email reviewed by the Journal, warning that they might have risked the deaths of motorists and violated state and federal laws.

Mr. Wildstein, an employee who works beneath Mr. Baroni at the authority but operates with wide latitude and is close to Mr. Christie, has not responded to repeated requests to comment on his intent in closing the bridge lanes, but Mr. Sokolich told Mr. Baroni in a confidential letter in September that he believed they were “punitive.”

Mr. Sokolich, a Democrat, had been asked two weeks earlier to endorse Mr. Christie for reelection, but declined, people familiar with the matter said. Mr. Sokolich has since changed his assessment and said he doesn’t believe the closures and ensuing traffic jam were intended as retribution.

Some public officials from northern New Jersey are not so sure, including Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, a Democrat who is trying to marshal votes for a resolution that would enable a Senate committee to issue subpoenas demanding an explanation. Ms. Weinberg has also demanded that the authority release its own internal review of the lane closure.

The authority initially said the lanes had been closed to allow for a study of traffic patterns, but people familiar with the matter refuted that. An email from Mr. Foye ordering the lanes reopened revealed that key officials in the authority, as well as local police, had never been warned that any study was planned, casting doubt on that explanation.

“There was no study,” a person familiar with the matter previously told the Journal.